AR Rahman announced his divorce from wife, Saira Banu, ending 29 years of marriage. Following the separation, rumours spread on the internet about a supposed relationship between AR Rahman and his bassist, Mohini Dey, who also divorced her husband, Mark Hartsuch, the next day. In an official response, Dey shared an official video and a statement to shut down the trolls who were spreading misinformation and making baseless assumptions.
Dey’s post comes days after Rahman issued a warning to individuals speculating about his separation from Banu.
In the video shared on Instagram, Dey said she respects Rahman as a father figure.
Captioning the video, she wrote, “It is utterly unbelievable to see the amount of misinformation and baseless assumptions/claims against me & @arrahman. I honour my times as a kid working with @arrahman throughout my 8.5 years of working with him for his movies, tours, etc. It is disheartening to see that people have no respect, sympathy or empathy towards emotional matters like this. It saddens me to see people’s state of mind.It feels criminal that the media has vulgarised the two events (sic).”
“I have a lot of father figures, role models in my life, and I’ve been really fortunate and grateful to have had them play vital roles in my upbringing. AR happens to be one of them. By AR, I mean AR Rahman. I respect him a lot. He is just like my father.
“He is a little bit younger than my dad. His daughter is exactly my age, I think. We have a lot of respect and love for each other. Anyway, long story short. Please be kind and respect our privacy. It’s a personal matter, and it’s painful. It’s a painful process. So please be kind,” she said in the video.
AR Rahman and Banu, who got married in 1995, broke the news of their separation on November 19 in a joint statement.
The former couple said they took the decision to separate after “significant emotional strain in their relationship”.
